This appeared on ABC news last sunday night. Climbing is going to help solve Tassie's economic woes and Launceston is to be pushed by the council as the climbing capital of Australia. Bit of a joke, but thats the spin the journo put on it.
See the news clip with me and Bob McMahon at the link below.

"Well may we say "Premier climbing venue", because nothing will save the General-Thread-Drift!
The Proclamation which you have just heard read by the Tastrad Official Secretary was countersigned ODH, who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from Remembrance Day Chockstone, as its saviour.
They won't silence the outskirts of Media House, even if the inside has been silenced for a few moments ... Maintain your rage and enthusiasm for the campaign for the elective options (poll?), soon to be posted and until read that day."

... Actually, attempted humour aside, I find it a sad thing that there will likely be ignorant people who will believe the spin/hype, and that climbing (in general), has been cast in this light.

Yes it was a bit of a joke. We don't claim the Gorge to be one of Australia's premier climbing venues - that's the touristy spin that the journalist and the council put on it. However in defense of Cataract Gorge/South Esk, I will say that it is a major venue in terms of volume of climbs (aboout 900), and it is the most convenient crag close to an urban centre in Australia. Is there another city of 100,000 with so many climbs literally in the centre of town? The Gorge is way better than any of the crags close to Melbourne such as You Yangs, Camels Hump, Ben Cairn, Mt Alexander, Black HIll, Werribee Gorge. And there are a few one pitch climbs that would be 3 stars on any cliff in Australia. And for the hordes of you mainland tourists that are going to come and save our economy and climb in the Gorge, its a pretty good place to spend a few hours in between trips to the mountains. So certainly not one of the country's premier crags, but certainly a candidate for best local crag in an urban centre.

On 2/10/2012 Tastrad wrote:>Yes it was a bit of a joke. We don't claim the Gorge to be one of Australia's>premier climbing venues - that's the touristy spin that the journalist>and the council put on it.

Fair play. Good to see climbing getting some mainstream exposure anyway :p

The Gorge may not be Australia's best climbing venue, but I might have Australia's best climbng mullet. Any other mullet headed climbers out there? That is one trend from the 80's that needs to be resurrected, as well as climbing in lycra. Where can you buy coloured lycra these days? They only seem to sell skins in the shops - and they are all in boring colours.

Cataract Gorge is good, if nothing else climbers on a tassie vacation trip will need to hunt down a grocery store or visit a camping store at some stage, and you can still get in a few hours of cragging. Also not a bad place to remind yourself how to jam dolerite before heading into the real mountains, esp if you're a wimmera-coddled victorian.